Mike on Crime

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A 25-year-old Dallas convenience store clerk is accused of conning a senior citizen out of her winning lottery ticket and claiming the $1-million prize before fleeing to his native Nepal, say authorities.

Pankaj Joshi was indicted in September on one count of claiming a lottery prize by fraud, according to an indictment unsealed this month.

Authorities allege Joshi took the winning lottery ticket from a 67-year-old customer at the Lucky Food Store in Grand Prairie, Texas, telling the senior the ticket was only worth $2, according to a Dallas TV report.

The clerk then allegedly took the cash option for the winning ticket at lottery headquarters in Austin and then transferred $750,000 to various bank accounts. Co-workers say he told them he was leaving for Nepal to help a cousin run a perfume store.

However, fellow staff became suspicious and informed the lottery commission, saying they had never seen Joshi play the lottery before.

In Ontario, lottery retailers are not allowed by buy tickets from their own store, thanks to new laws enacted in November 2008.

The move followed a scathing 2007 report from the provincial ombudsman that found “rampant fraud” among jackpot claims.